Steady progress

Stuart Matthews , July 5th, 2010

Rufi Twin Towers is rising out of Dubai’s Sport City. With views of picturesque golf courses and the impressive cricket stadium, the finished product can look forward to an enviable sporting outlook.

Many nearby structures are at a similar stage in development, with varied levels of progress in evidence, while the newness of some parts of the city give a clue to their very recent completion dates.

As the name suggests the Rufi Twin Towers project involves construction of two towers comprising two basement car parking levels, a ground floor, 18 additional floors and a common roof top. When finished, it will offer apartments and amenities for around 1,200 residents.

Although the project is not moving at the hectic pace at which it started, careful management by Emirates Belbadi Contracting Company, the main contractor, is making sure the project is one of those still making steady progress.

The company, which counts a new hotel project in Al Ain and an emerging development on Reem Island among its latest awards, has finished the initial contract period for the towers, but has agreed an extension with its client, to accommodate a slow down on the job.

“We were given another year to finish this project,” said Elie Zgheib, Emirates Belbadi Contracting’s Dubai projects manager.

“The client is emphasising the concrete and the block works, then we’ll start with the fitout and the MEP. We have finalised most of the lifts, swimming pools, garbage shoots and lights, but it is up to the market how much we can accelerate the work.”

At the project’s start the two towers were progressing at the rate of eight slabs per month, but of late this has been pulled back to just one per month now. That said, the towers are just a little short of completion: Doka formwork is in place and rebar ready for the next pour on one tower, while the other has halted, waiting for final design work on the sky bridge that will link the two towers at their top.

The slow down was by mutual agreement between client and contractor, the two working to help each other out, but there’s more to it than simply reducing the amount of work done each day.

“You have to reorganise all of your team,” said Zgheib. “Before, I had MEP coordinators, construction managers, engineers and around 400 labourers in two teams on each tower – now I have reduced everything
by half.”

The amount of equipment on site was cut down too, with two tower cranes and a number of generators being removed, to help reduce site costs. Overtime for the labour force is also a thing of the past.

“This procedure is very difficult,” said Zgheib. “But as professionals, we reduce our costs to match our income and keep the client happy, plus [future] tenants still see their building is coming on.

“On the other hand, there is a positive side. We have had time to review our drawings, we have had time to check our value engineering and the quality of the build. Now we have time to check everything, study the details with our sub-contractors and avoid any variations in the future, which saves money for our client.”

Prolonging a project isn’t without its own costs. The core equipment needed to run the site has to stay whether progress is at the rate of one slab per month, or eight, with an estimated AED 20,000 per day required to cover everything, from cranes to the site offices.

With some costs fixed, no matter how fast the project goes, a slow down also raises the cost of progress. “I prefer to keep it running this way, it’s better than not working or having to release labour,” said Zgheib.

“Before, I had a project manager for each job; now we are more spread. Our management was very smart in this regard, giving more work to everyone means more pressure, but we’re all still in a job, so it was a good strategy for our management.”

Other projects on nearby sites allow the company some flexibility with resourcing. The company is able to move its specialised labour from site to site as required, and keep the teams busy.

“Some of my labourers are bored, they want more action,” said Zgheib. “This is a challenge some of the time. Let’s say I have 50 steel fixers and sometimes they have nothing to do, when the shuttering is done, the carpenters have nothing to do, so I move them around to do something else.

“We are settled in Dubai. We have other projects in Al Ain or Abu Dhabi, but we have been in the market in Dubai for more than 15 years. Now it’s time to hurt a little, to keep our business running here.”

Cost savings are being found in the design to help the project further. The sky bridge, set to link the two towers at the top and be a defining feature of the structure, is being redesigned to employ less steel internally.

Once designs are complete and the details of the engineering specifications finalised, then the method of construction for the bridge will be decided and progress at the top of the towers can be resumed.

“When the engineer gives us the details, then we will be able to go to a specialist to get their opinion,” said Zgheib. “They may say cranes, or scaffolding. How they are going to handle the bridge depends on their method statement.

“I want to finish my towers so I can start with the finishing works all around the towers and the substation, which is also part of our package.”

There is still plenty to do on the towers to complete the structure, but steady progress, through careful and considered management, is the aim, until market conditions improve enough to allow for acceleration.

Rufi Twin Towers, Dubai Sports City
Owner: Rufi Real Estate & Construction
Consultants: Dimensions Engineering Consultants (DEC)
Contractor: Emirates Belbadi Contracting
Contractor: Al Sabah International
Cement and concrete products: National Ready Mix Concrete, Al Ain Cement & Marble
Formwork: Doka
Metals: Cicon Building Materials
Electricals: Zucchini (Gulf)
Pipes: Hepco 3B
Cables: Oman Cables industry

*Source: BNC Network